Thick dark clouds,showers of rain, poor light, they all tried to ruin our day but failed miserably.
George & Viviane are staying with us in one of our apartments and booked a day tour with me, they wanted to watch raptor migration at the coast but the weather put a stop to that, however we had a great day, enjoying every minute between the showers.
We started at Gaucin and drove along the A405 towards Jimena, a couple of stops in quiet country tracks produced a variety of species and as George & Viv are new to bird-watching we concentrated on the common species. Spotless Starlings, Stonechat, Corn Bunting, Sardinian Warbler & Common Kestrel were our first birds.
At Jimena we added Little Owl, Zitting Cisticola, Red-rumped Swallow and lots more Corn Buntings. It began to rain so we moved down to the coast, we stopped to admire the White stork colony around Castellar and then visited the salt marshes of Palmones. In brighter weather (although we could hardly see the usually very visible Gibraltar)we watched a good number of birds in this excellent river estuary. The tide was low and about to turn so there were many birds on the muddy banks. Ringed Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Turnstone, Redshank, Sanderling, Whimbrel, Avocet, Kentish Plover, Common Sandpiper and Greenshank were slowly picked out in turn for my clients. The bigger, easier birds to identify were Spoonbill, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Marsh Harrier and to the delight of my two companions, 3 Ospreys were perched on various posts in the marsh.
The large sandbank near the beach held good numbers of terns and gulls, Sandwich (50+), Little & Common Terns were joined by Black-headed, Mediterranean, Lesser black-backed and yellow-legged Gulls.
We drove round to the Algeciras side of the marsh and decided to take our picnic lunch in the raised hide. We spent a lovely hour in failing light and watched Oystercatcher, Black-winged Stilt, Grey Plover, Grey Heron (46), White Stork (8) and we were closer to the Ospreys which did fly around but never tried to catch a fish. On the way back to the car we found Common Whitethroat and a few House Martins, it began to rain!
We set off to the east as the rain came in from the west and after 15 minutes we arrived at a dry San Enrique. We stopped at my Tree Sparrow site and quickly found them. The small sewer works nearby attracted many insects and likewise many birds. We had good views of Pied & spotted Flycatchers and Chiffchaff. A fig tree laden with fruit attracted both Blackcaps and Garden Warblers both of which were devouring ripe figs. The sky suddenly got lighter and the air warmed up this encouraged a number of Booted eagles to take to the air. They were joined by Honey Buzzard and Sparrowhawk. We found two Booted Eagles perched in a dead tree but the rain came back and forced us to move on.
A short drive into Soto Grande found us at the beach nature reserve where we logged Northern Gannet, Common Coot, Moorhen and a juvenile Night Heron. Then it started to rain... again. Now we headed back to the west and drove through the rain to arrive at the pine woods at Pinar del Rey. In relatively dry conditions we walked the woods and found very little, Jay, Great spotted Woodpecker, & Great Tit, but the highlight has to a swarm of Booted Eagles above the wood, they were joined by a single Black kite.
We set off for home but made one last stop at Sierra Crestellina near Casares where enjoyed our best sighting of the day. A fair number of Griffon Vultures drifted in and out of the cloud. We watched Crested Lark, Cirl Buntings, a Woodchat Shrike and several Stonechats before the cloud cleared from the mountain summit. Then a large group of vultures took to the air and circled above us, then we noticed two smaller birds in amongst them, they were adult Bonelli's Eagles! We spent 30 minutes watching them as they drifted, perched, dived bombed and harassed the vultures. A great bird to end the day with and I'm not sure that my clients fully understood my great excitement at seeing the eagles!
Despite the rain and poor light conditions we found just under 70 species!
George & Viviane are staying with us in one of our apartments and booked a day tour with me, they wanted to watch raptor migration at the coast but the weather put a stop to that, however we had a great day, enjoying every minute between the showers.
We started at Gaucin and drove along the A405 towards Jimena, a couple of stops in quiet country tracks produced a variety of species and as George & Viv are new to bird-watching we concentrated on the common species. Spotless Starlings, Stonechat, Corn Bunting, Sardinian Warbler & Common Kestrel were our first birds.
At Jimena we added Little Owl, Zitting Cisticola, Red-rumped Swallow and lots more Corn Buntings. It began to rain so we moved down to the coast, we stopped to admire the White stork colony around Castellar and then visited the salt marshes of Palmones. In brighter weather (although we could hardly see the usually very visible Gibraltar)we watched a good number of birds in this excellent river estuary. The tide was low and about to turn so there were many birds on the muddy banks. Ringed Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Turnstone, Redshank, Sanderling, Whimbrel, Avocet, Kentish Plover, Common Sandpiper and Greenshank were slowly picked out in turn for my clients. The bigger, easier birds to identify were Spoonbill, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Marsh Harrier and to the delight of my two companions, 3 Ospreys were perched on various posts in the marsh.
The large sandbank near the beach held good numbers of terns and gulls, Sandwich (50+), Little & Common Terns were joined by Black-headed, Mediterranean, Lesser black-backed and yellow-legged Gulls.
We drove round to the Algeciras side of the marsh and decided to take our picnic lunch in the raised hide. We spent a lovely hour in failing light and watched Oystercatcher, Black-winged Stilt, Grey Plover, Grey Heron (46), White Stork (8) and we were closer to the Ospreys which did fly around but never tried to catch a fish. On the way back to the car we found Common Whitethroat and a few House Martins, it began to rain!
We set off to the east as the rain came in from the west and after 15 minutes we arrived at a dry San Enrique. We stopped at my Tree Sparrow site and quickly found them. The small sewer works nearby attracted many insects and likewise many birds. We had good views of Pied & spotted Flycatchers and Chiffchaff. A fig tree laden with fruit attracted both Blackcaps and Garden Warblers both of which were devouring ripe figs. The sky suddenly got lighter and the air warmed up this encouraged a number of Booted eagles to take to the air. They were joined by Honey Buzzard and Sparrowhawk. We found two Booted Eagles perched in a dead tree but the rain came back and forced us to move on.
A short drive into Soto Grande found us at the beach nature reserve where we logged Northern Gannet, Common Coot, Moorhen and a juvenile Night Heron. Then it started to rain... again. Now we headed back to the west and drove through the rain to arrive at the pine woods at Pinar del Rey. In relatively dry conditions we walked the woods and found very little, Jay, Great spotted Woodpecker, & Great Tit, but the highlight has to a swarm of Booted Eagles above the wood, they were joined by a single Black kite.
We set off for home but made one last stop at Sierra Crestellina near Casares where enjoyed our best sighting of the day. A fair number of Griffon Vultures drifted in and out of the cloud. We watched Crested Lark, Cirl Buntings, a Woodchat Shrike and several Stonechats before the cloud cleared from the mountain summit. Then a large group of vultures took to the air and circled above us, then we noticed two smaller birds in amongst them, they were adult Bonelli's Eagles! We spent 30 minutes watching them as they drifted, perched, dived bombed and harassed the vultures. A great bird to end the day with and I'm not sure that my clients fully understood my great excitement at seeing the eagles!
Despite the rain and poor light conditions we found just under 70 species!
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